This invention generally relates to a lift apparatus and more particularly to a novel and improved telescoping and collapsible wheelchair lift apparatus specifically adapted for use in vehicular applications, such as, railway cars.
This invention is in the field of wheelchair lifts for lifting and lowering wheelchairs between the floor level of a commercial vehicle and a street or platform level. Among the objectives in such designs is to provide an assembly that takes up minimum space in storage, does not impede normal ingress and egress to and from the vehicle through its accessway, and can be easily and rapidly moved from the stored position to a deployed operational position under the complete control of the operator.
Representative lift mechanisms are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,479,753, to G. R. Thorley, 4,534,450 to P. Savaria, 4,299,528 to J. E. Kazeil et al and 4,140,230 to M. R. Pearson and in my previous U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,026,244 and 5,149,246. The collapsible wheelchair lift apparatus disclosed in my previous patents is particularly designed for installation in the doorway of a motor vehicle such as a commercial bus or van. A vertical column fastened to the floor and ceiling of the vehicle in the doorway supports the wheelchair lift assembly for swiveling about the column from a storage position in the vehicle to an operational position outside the vehicle, through an arc of about 180.degree.. Since the column is mounted directly in the doorway, the lift apparatus and the column takes up a portion of the width of the doorway which would otherwise be available for passenger access. Therefore there remains a need for a wheelchair lift apparatus which provides both for an unrestricted normal ingress and egress passageway and convenient deployment of a wheelchair lift apparatus through the accessway from a stored position to the operational position outside the vehicle.
For railway car installation, a wheelchair lift apparatus must provide access to the car for handicapped persons from the train station platform, typically at or near track level, to the floor level of the train car, which is typically three to five feet above the track level. Many train cars cannot accommodate a support column or post in the accessway due to the narrow width of the accessway. In addition, modern train cars often do not have a vertical side wall. It may also be difficult to provide a support column immediately adjacent the accessway due to the thickness of the side wall or other structural obstruction. Accordingly there is a need for a wheelchair lift apparatus which can be supported from a vertical support inside the vehicle and spaced to the side of the accessway so as not to impede normal access; and which is capable of being expanded or extended the additional distance necessary to clear the outside wall of the railway car as well as to be collapsible into a compact arrangement for storage within the vehicle, out of the accessway.